Tipula (Vestiplex) tchukchi Alexander, 1934

Figs 56-64, 65-66, 89

Tipula (Vestiplex) tchukchi Alexander 1934: 408.

Tipula (Vestiplex) tchukchi obtusidens Savchenko 1964: 205 (synonymy after Starkevich and Paramonov 2016).

Tipula (Vestiplex) bo Mannheims 1967: 148 (synonymy after Mannheims and Savchenko 1973).

Type material examined.

Holotype, male, RUSSIA, Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Markovo township near Anadyr town, 6 July 1896, Gondatti (ZIN); paratype, female, topotypic (ZIN); paratype, male, Kamchatka Kray, mouth of Kichiga River, 27 June 1910, Skorikov (ZIN).

Other examined material

(Fig. 89). NORTH KOREA, 1 male, Seren Mts, alt. 3500 ft, 25 June 25 1938, Yankovsky (USNM) ; 1 female, MONGOLIA, Tov Aimag, Erdene Soum, Gorkhi Terelj National Park, unnamed tributary of Tuul River on its west side, 1.6 km upstream from Daichin crossing, 48.21780°N, 107.90392°E, alt. 1600 m, 9 July 2003, SRP#03070902, coll. O. Yadamsuren (ANSP) .

Diagnosis.

Tipula (V.) thukchi can be recognized by the unarmed gonocoxite and the ninth tergite forming a concave, roughly rectangular, sclerotized saucer. The body coloration is blackish yellow, and the wing pattern is indistinct. The female has the cercus with an apical incision and outer margin rough and distinctly serrated. The eight sternite has a distinct lateral incision, and the hypovalvae are filamentous.

Male. Body length 16.8 mm, wing length 17.1 mm. General body coloration blackish yellow.

Head. Gray, vertex and occiput gray with brown median line. Rostrum brown, dorsally dusted with gray. Nasus short. Antenna 13-segmented, if bent backward extending beyond the wing base. Scape and pedicel yellowish; first flagellar segment brownish; subsequent flagellar segments dark brown. Each flagellomere except first one with basal enlargement and moderately incised. Apical flagellomere small, reduced. Verticils shorter than corresponding segments. Palpus dark brown.

Thorax. Brown, dusted with grey. Pronotum blackish, gray dusted, with brown median line. Prescutum and presutural scutum brown, grey pruinose with four longitudinal stripes bordered by brown. Intermediate pair fused into brown median line. Interspace between median and lateral stripes light gray. Postsutural scutum blackish, gray pruinose with median line. Scutal lobe with two spots bordered by brown. Scutellum brown, postnotum brown, dusted with gray-brown; both sclerites with darker median line. Pleura brown, dusted with gray. Coxa brown, grey pruinose. Trochanter, femur, and tibia yellowish. Tarsal segments brown. Distal part of femur and tibia dark brown. Tarsal claws toothed. Wing pattern indistinct, only weak darkening along vein CuA. Halter yellowish, with brown knob.

Abdomen. Yellow. Abdominal segments 1-4 yellow, subsequent segments passing into dark brown. Tergites with lateral margins narrowly pale; dorsal stripe broad; lateral stripe pale.

Hypopygium. Brownish black. Ninth tergite forming a large, concave, roughly rectangular sclerotized saucer. Main body of tergal saucer brown and rim blackened (Fig. 56). Posterior margin of tergal saucer toothed with small denticles, broadly emarginated, with deep median U-shaped notch. Lateral angles of tergal saucer obtuse, broadly truncated. Anterior and lateral portions of tergal saucer raised into sclerotized border; border laterally produced into obtuse point directed caudad and situated under lateral angle of tergal saucer so that ninth tergite with two teeth in lateral view. Gonocoxite unarmed (Fig. 57). Outer gonostylus flattened, slightly curved, with apex rounded (Fig. 58). Inner gonostylus in the shape of a curved plate, terminating dorsally with obtuse tooth; beak claw-shaped (Fig. 59). Gonocoxal fragment large, with lateral and medial sclerites well developed (Fig. 60). Medial sclerites fused anteriorly into long, narrow apodeme; posteriorly with rounded apodeme; lateral parts broadened and arched. Lateral sclerite large and bilobed, expanded at base. Adminiculum canoe-shaped (Fig. 61). Semen pump with central vesicle relatively small and flattened (Figs 62, 63). Compressor apodeme with broad median incision, forming a 50° angle with posterior immovable apodeme. Posterior immovable apodeme approximately as long as compressor apodeme. Anterior immovable apodeme rounded. Intromittent organ tube-shaped, about four times as long as semen pump, basally and medially brown, passing into yellow towards apex. Distal part ventrally truncated, shovel-shaped, with rough edge and two stripped fragments (Fig. 65).

Female. Female not known from Korean Peninsula, but can be recognized by cercus having apical incision and rough and distinctly serrated outer margin (Fig. 65). Hypovalva filamentous, flattened, broadened at base, distally pale, with short trichia at tip (Fig. 66). Median incision between hypovalvae deeper than posterior margin of eighth sternite; lateral incisions distinct.

Known distribution.

Finland, Sweden, Russia, and Mongolia (Oosterbroek 2019). Recorded here for the first time from the Korean Peninsula.